Posted on 04/27/2003 12:54:50 PM PDT by ATCNavyRetiree
Tacoma police chief shoots wife, kills himself
By LEWIS KAMB, PHUONG CAT LE, ANGELA GALLOWAY and RUTH TEICHROEB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
GIG HARBOR - Tacoma's police chief shot his wife and then himself in the parking lot of a strip mall Saturday afternoon while the couple's two young children were nearby.
David Brame died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma about 6 p.m. His wife Crystal was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
On Friday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Crystal Brame, 35, had obtained a temporary restraining order in February against her husband. In subsequent court papers, she had accused him of pointing his service revolver at her and trying to choke her during two separate incidents in the past six months.
The couple were going through a divorce.
Brame, a veteran officer who rose through the ranks to become chief in January 2002, denied those allegations in court papers filed in King County Superior Court last month.
Saturday's shooting happened at about 3:10 p.m., said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.
"We don't believe other people are involved," Troyer said. "The victims were the chief of the Tacoma Police Department and his wife. We believe he shot her and then shot himself."
Crystal Brame was in a black Toyota Camry with the couple's two children when David Brame approached the vehicle, authorities said. The two had arranged to meet in the shopping mall parking lot. David Brame took the two children - 8-year-old Haley and 5-year-old David - to his burgundy Toyota Camry, which was parked nearby. He then returned to the car Crystal Brame was in. He got in also and a short time later two shots were fired, authorities said.
NOTE: This story has been updated since it was originally posted.
"The kids were screaming," said Kirsten Oakland, who works in a hair salon at the mall. "Who would have thought? Awful. This affected the entire community in a split second."
An off-duty King County paramedic was the first to arrive on the scene and begin treatment.
"It appeared she (Crystal) managed to open the door and fell down to the ground," Troyer said. "And the paramedic pulled up right next to her in the car."
Neither child was hurt. They were with their mother's parents Saturday night, Troyer said.
George Sharp, a supervisor for the Rite Aid store, said almost nobody in the store actually heard the shooting. Many learned of it from customers and employees coming in for their shifts who had learned about the shooting from news reports.
"A lot of people expressed shock that it did happen in Gig Harbor and the customers and the employees wish that it hadn't happened but they didn't really feel any more threatened as they would if it were a drive-by or it were a random act," Sharp said.
"I think that people are saddened it got to that stage and unhappy that it happened here, and unhappy that it happened at all."
Troyer said one of the Brame children got out of the car and went into a nearby Hollywood Video store. Witnesses took the other child to the store too.
Jesse Hentz, assistant manager of the Hollywood Video, said: "I feel really bad. And I want the family to know that people care about them."
In court papers, Crystal Brame portrayed her husband as controlling and jealous, refusing to let her use their credit card without permission and checking her car's odometer to monitor trips to the grocery store.
She also accused him of leaving his loaded service revolver on a bedroom shelf within reach of their two children.
Her fear increased last November when she alleged that the 44-year-old Brame "choked me and threatened that he could snap my neck if he wanted to." It was the fourth time that year he'd tried to choke her, each time sending flowers later to apologize, she said.
And just before they separated in February, she alleged in court documents that Brame pointed his service revolver at her, "telling me 'accidents happen.' "
She did not report either incident to police.
David Brame had maintained he was the real victim of domestic violence during his 11-year marriage. He said he reported the assaults to police -- first to his boss, then-interim Chief Ken Monner and to an officer who photographed his bruises; then to police in Gig Harbor, where he was living at the time.
Both times David Brame insisted that police not arrest his wife or even investigate his allegations - even though a state law requires officers to arrest anyone accused of domestic violence if the complaint is credible.
He explained his unusual behavior in court documents by saying he wanted to "protect himself" in case his wife ever tried to malign him with false abuse allegations.
Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan, who sits on the council's public safety committee, said he had a hard time believing the shooting had happened.
"We knew David from his professional side. This is a total shock," Lonergan said Saturday. "He presented himself as a very together person, business-like and very likeable. This entire thing is hard to grasp."
Although Lonergan said the usually outgoing Brame had been withdrawn and seemed depressed lately, he had no idea what was going on at home.
"To know David Brame took the action he did today shows that there was a whole lot beneath the surface we couldn't see," Lonergan said.
Ken Bunting, executive editor of the P-I, said "this is a tragic development in lives that, from all accounts, have been troubled for quite some time. These events are not only painful for the family, but for the community and all who have the responsibility to ask the difficult questions about it. Domestic violence is never a comfortable topic."
Paul Pastor, Pierce County sheriff, announced Brame's death from outside St. Joseph's hospital. He said only that Brame had died of a gunshot wound; no other details were given.
"This is terribly sad news for this city and this community," Pastor said.
Carlos Sambrano, a childhood friend of the chief, went to the hospital to support the family. He said he and Brame played baseball at Lincoln High School.
"He never appeared to be a violent person," said Sambrano, who described his friend as a "class act."
Visibly distraught over the news of his friend's death, Sambrano said: "What's this world coming to."
I know an ex-paramedic (a woman) who left that field because of too many domestic abuse cases ---the last straw was when they went to save a woman that had broken ribs and a face like hamburger ---she had been beaten to a pulp ---and yet as they were trying to get her onto the stretcher, she kept trying to get off ---to get to the cops putting handcuffs on the husband ---because they were hurting him. She told me that she felt like pushing the injured woman to him and telling him just to kill her ---she realized she had lost her compassion so left the field for another one.
There are times when homicide is legally justifiable, such as self-defense, manslaughter, and war. There may be others. But from the Bible, which is the source of all just law, those are the only three I know of, and in the Old Testament, when someone killed someone without forethought, and unintentionally, he had to flee to a city of refuge and stay there under the priest's protection till that priest died (whereupon he could return to his own city).
The law teaches us to control ourselves or face the consequences. The chief, trained and paid to uphold the law, was the most despicable example of corruption of the law.
Exactly.
I guess he thought murdering her in front of the kids WOULDN'T make the papers?
However, I wonder if the Lautenberg amendment might have exacerbated things. The restraining order effectively ended his carreer, yet it did nothing to stop the murder/suicide. Yes, I agree that the officer "lost it". I am only wondering if there might have been a way to help him keep from "losing it" .
I disagree. The Chief was a human being, in a domestic situation. It had nothing to do with "corruption of the law". Get a grip.
The restraining order had just been issued the day before. Visitation rights during a divorce aren't always spelled out. She had just finally taken the steps to get free of him, and it's unlikely she had her head on straight enough at that time to have put in a request for a court-ordered review of the visitation rights. Perhaps he had never harmed their children in front of her, directing his anger at her alone.
This is going to sound stupid, but visitation rights to the person under the restraining order are frequently ordered by the court. Normally, those visitations are supervised. As far as I know, a face to face meeting voids the protection order. If you're gonna meet alone, face to face, there's no way to enforce it. He was in her car with her. There's an awful lot about this case that makes no sense.
I doubt it. People who have become loose cannons aren't easy to regulate. These laws and amendments and restraining orders only serve to trip up a few of those who intend harm but are not this quick or competent.
How did this pyscho become police chief?
A police chief who is off duty has a duty (as does every citizen in every circumstance) to uphold the law that he is paid to uphold when he is on duty.
HELL YES!!!
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